Description: Common Critters celebrates neighborhood wildlife in verse. A familiar cast of characters--worms, slugs, caterpillars, ladybugs, robins, mourning doves, houseflies, spiders, squirrels, skunks, and others--crawls, runs, buzzes, and flits through these lively poems, which show how exotic these seemingly ordinary creatures really are.
Brief description: Pat Brisson is the author of 20 books for young readers, including The Summer My Father Was Ten and Sometimes We Were Brave, Tummy Time Friends, and Common Critters. A graduate of Rutgers University, she is a former elementary school teacher, school librarian, and public-library reference librarian. Pat lives in New Jersey with her husband.
Review Quotes: Superlative back matter elevates this illustrated collection of jokey poems celebrating neighborhood wildlife: "There are creatures all around you, / not exotic, but not tame./ Though most are pretty common, / they're intriguing just the same." Each critter gets its own poem on a spread illustrated with Tavis's artful landscapes and goofily goggle-eyed wildlife. Brisson's wordplay ranges from obvious ha-has (of crows: "And could this fact be much absurder?/ A group of you is called a murder!") to sophisticated lines (of caterpillars: "It follows metamorphic urges/ to break out, and what emerges/ is a moth or butterfly/ that dries its wings and starts to fly"). A "Facts About Common Critters" section offers more information about the featured creatures ("A squirrel will crack open a nut and rub it on its face before burying it") alongside a brief discussion of artistic license, while "A Peek into the Poet's Toolkit" uses the poems to explain rhyme, meter, stanza, and poetic license.-- "PW" (5/13/2020 12:00:00 AM)